Fake GSL cancellations create uproar

Bursar Shirley M. Picardi said yesterday that her office began receiving
telephone calls on Tuesday at about 10 am. Between five and six hundred
students have called since then, she added.

Picardi noted that the mailing was "not confined to specific dorms," and
that "students all across the campus" had called to complain. "Some
freshmen were crying," she added. Picardi was not sure whether graduate
students had received the letters.

In a letter sent to The Tech Picardi said that "all of the
students [who called the Bursar's Office] were upset, because [the letters]
gave the definite impression that there was nothing they could do about it
without hiring an attorney." The letter to students says that "further
documentation . . . will be forwarded upon request of attorney." Picardi
said that the "phone calls have tapered off" since Tuesday.

James F. Mahoney Jr., deputy chief of Campus Police, said that the
Bursar's Office and Campus Police were working together to find out who
sent the letters. He said that the Campus Police has "had the Bursar's
Office save 10 to 12 letters," and that "we are going to try to trace the
letters back through interdepartmental mail." Mahoney admitted that this
might be "problematic."

The letters were sent through interdepartmental mail in blank envelopes
without any return address, and were placed on photocopied Bursar's Office
stationary. In addition, the word "HA!" was placed inside of the MIT "Mens
et Manus" symbol. Mahoney said that notices of loan cancellation were
normally sent "to a permanent address, via US Mail."

The letter from HA! implies that this would not the group's final
activity. They wrote that they "plan to change" the amount of hacking that
takes place on campus.

Picardi was "distressed" to see "so many students so upset" about the
mailing, and said that "we care how students deal with financial problems."
"Their minds should be on their academic pursuits," she added.

Mahoney said that "if we have any names or inkling of who did it, we will
refer it to the Office of the Dean for Student Affairs." He was not sure
what kind of action the Dean's Office would take.

"This has never happened to the Bursar's Office, nor to any office that I
know of," Picardi said. She added, "I have been here since 1970. I have
seen a lot of hacks, and most of them are funny and do not hurt people. I
think that this one hurt students."